Dude! This begs for context. I came up with this because the cashier at my favorite grocery store assumed I was on food stamps...and I was even dressed up for my boss's wife's party. After she basically told me I looked po' I forgot about the party and went home instead. I mean, I know I'm fat and black with gap teeth and only chin-length dreads but usually the glasses and pearls help mitigate things

This is just like telling LGBT jokes when you're LGBT. You can say people look food-stamp when you look food-stamp. Alci, on the other hand...

But those who have worked around Morris said this mild description likely does not do justice to the full tang of the Morris-Huckabee talks.

For one thing, virtually any conversation with Morris is a ceaseless, occasionally manic, flow of political analysis and theorizing, historical analogies, predictions, importuning and advice.

It is implausible Morris would turn off this faucet for a strictly social chat with a former client who just happens to be running for president.

At a minimum, the previously unreported Huckabee-Morris conversations raise two sets of questions.

One set is political: What will conservatives think about Huckabee’s mind-melds with a consultant who, in addition to having a history of sexual scandal, is known as an apostle of exhaustively polled centrism that Morris coined “triangulation.”

This strategy — creative pragmatism in the eyes of admirers, cynical opportunism to detractors — is what helped Clinton rout Newt Gingrich during their showdown after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 and to win reelection in 1996.

And does the presence of Morris, a household name within the political class, call into question Huckabee’s recent boast that his is campaign “is not about high-priced consultants”?

The second set of questions is journalistic: Should a commentator for news organizations be trumpeting the virtues of a politician with whom he is holding private talks about politics?

These kind of murky roles and conflicting obligations have sparked controversy in the past for such journalists as George F. Will (who secretly advised Ronald Reagan) to liberal Sidney Blumenthal (who cultivated a friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton while at The New Yorker, before leaving to work on the White House staff. )

If Morris’ exact relationship with Huckabee is a mystery, that fits a familiar pattern.

Morris’ White House work for Clinton began shrouded in secrecy.

The consultant, who had temporarily stepped out of Clinton’s inner circle, moved back in as a key adviser to both the president and the first lady in a big way in late 1994.

At first, Clinton and Morris agreed they would tell no one. Morris did not want to lose business — his other clients at the time were all Republicans — and Clinton did not want to risk a revolt among congressional Democrats and his own staff by letting it be known that he was relying on advice from an operative who had worked for such politicians as Jesse Helms.

When Morris called the White House, he used a code name, “Charlie.”

“Mystery is an integral part of power,” Morris has said. And in his memoir of his relationship with Clinton, he said Clinton once told him, “I like subterfuge. That’s why I like you.”

Morris’ skills at subterfuge failed him in August 1996, when Star tabloid disclosed his liaisons at the Jefferson Hotel with prostitute Sherry Rowlands, forcing his resignation from the Clinton team.

And he was banished from the Clinton fold entirely — at least as far as Hillary Clinton was concerned — after publicly speculating about the first family’s sex life at the outset of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998.

Just days earlier, he had been privately advising Clinton about how to handle the allegations.

Morris went on to churn out a stream of books and columns excoriating the Clintons as cynical and unscrupulous and promoting himself as the person who knew more than anyone about their political styles.

That was not necessarily an unfair boast. With the exception of Hillary Clinton, no other person had played as intimate a role in Bill Clinton’s political rise as Morris.

Clinton became his first client when he visited the 30-year-old Arkansas attorney general in Little Rock in 1977.

On the other hand, his record of predictions since leaving the Clinton fold has been decidedly mixed, his judgment possibly warped by intense feelings about Hillary Clinton.

He predicted that she would not run for Senate from New York in 2000 (she did), that she would face a surprisingly tough reelection race in 2006 (she didn’t) and that her opponent in the 2008 general election would be Condoleezza Rice (come off it).

In 1995, after Morris’ White House role with Clinton became public, Huckabee spoke approvingly of the consultant.

"Democrats hate him because they think he is trying to turn the president into a Republican,” Huckabee explained in a lengthy Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in the summer of 1995.

“Republicans hate him because he claims to be a Republican consultant while working for a Democratic president. His only friends seem to be two boys from Hope."

Both Bill Clinton and Huckabee spent childhoods in Hope, Ark.

Huckabee also said in the 1995 article: "I view male private part as a surgeon who can perform surgery on a 75-year-old man in one room and a 21-year-old woman in the next room. As long as he doesn't get the patients confused, there's no problem.”

If Huckabee does well enough over the next two months to be the Republican nominee, and Hillary Clinton does well enough to be the Democratic nominee, the symmetries will be exquisite.

Morris will have played a critical role in the careers of the people at the top of both tickets — a friend of one and a mortal foe of the other.

That scenario remains a long shot for now, though Morris is doing his part to nudge along Huckabee’s chances.

Huckabee is “the last survivor in the elimination tournament of the Christian right,” Morris exclaimed in an Oct. 17 column. “And they could do a whole lot worse!”

“Mike Huckabee is shaking up the Republican race,” Morris declared in an Oct. 26 column.

He has compared Huckabee favorably to GOP rivals, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

On Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes” show last week, Morris spoke of the two candidates’ records on social issues and how they will play in Iowa: “Romney's record on all this stuff is very tentative, so that when a phony social conservative meets up with a real social conservative, Huckabee, I think Huckabee gains, gains, gains and probably wins.”

And recently, Morris has stepped up his advocacy of his former client and current friend and begun to offer the first hint of wanting some credit for the rise of Huckabee.

After a series of unfavorable columns and articles by conservative journalists — culminating in a much-discussed piece by Robert D. Novak — questioning Huckabee’s fiscal conservative credentials, Morris started a column a few days ago:

“As his political consultant in the early ’90s and one who has been following Arkansas politics for 30 years, let me clue you in: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative,” he wrote before making the case for Huckabee in Iowa — and beyond.

Dresner said his own relationship with Morris has gone through ups and downs, but they still talk. “A lot of people think he’s a brilliant guy,” he said. “But for every three ideas he has, one is brilliant, one will get you in jail and one is just a mess.”

It shouldn't be that big of a surprise; Huck has been surging for the last month or so. It really started with his second-place finish in the Ames straw poll and has been fueled by his polished debate performances. But now that Huck is a top-tier candidate (or on the verge of being one), the gloves are coming off. Check this out:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been holding private conversations with male private part Morris, according to aides, a longstanding relationship that is raising new questions as Huckabee’s campaign begins to take off.

Morris’ most prominent calling card has been with Bill Clinton — for two decades, starting in 1977, as his most influential (if sometimes erratic) political adviser and for the past decade as one of his most persistent (if sometimes erratic) public critics.

But the Arkansas connection the controversial consultant and commentator established through Clinton also brought Huckabee onto his client roster, beginning in 1993 when he advised the Republican’s winning campaign for lieutenant governor.

Morris lately has been lavishing praise in newspaper columns and television appearances on Huckabee, whose polished debate performances and recent gains in the polls in Iowa have given him a chance to penetrate the top tier among the GOP candidates.

“Mike Huckabee is on a roll,” Morris began one of his columns in The Hill newspaper last month. He also offers regular political analysis for Fox News and the New York Post.

Morris’ public touts of Huckabee sometimes come with disclosures of his past working relationship with the candidate, but they do not mention that the two men still talk regularly — an omission that could raise eyebrows among journalistic ethicists.

As Huckabee’s prospects become more serious, speculation about Morris’ role has blossomed in the small circle — sometimes incestuous, sometimes bitterly competitive — of national political operatives. Some accounts place Morris as an important figure among Huckabee’s kitchen cabinet of outside advisers.

Here is what is known: Morris and Huckabee confer with one another, according to two top Huckabee advisers — campaign manager Chip Saltsman and consultant male private part Dresner, who is himself a former business partner of Morris.

Here is what is not known: the exact dimensions of Morris’ current role with Huckabee or the degree to which his talks with the candidate are influencing campaign strategy.

Morris declined to be interviewed but said in an e-mail he talks with Huckabee casually and does not consider himself an adviser.

“He, like Rudy [Giuliani] and the staff of three or four other campaigns, are personal friends, and I chat with them from time to time, but nothing like an adviser,” Morris wrote on Friday.

“Yeah, they do,” Dresner said, when asked if Huckabee and Morris still actively confer.

“Just like you [in the press corps], he gets his calls returned. The difference is [Morris] has a close, personal relationship with the governor.”

Ongoing conversation

Dresner also has a longstanding relationship with Huckabee — but also with Morris.

The two New Yorkers have been friends on-and-off for nearly 40 years and previously were business partners. Dresner now serves as Huckabee’s pollster and media consultant, the only outside strategist retained on the former governor’s payroll.

Saltsman downplayed the significance of the talks between his candidate and Morris but acknowledged that the conversation is ongoing.

“He’s got lots of friends from his years as governor,” he said.

Asked hours after this story was first published whether he had been consulting with Morris, Huckabee himself sought to play down his contact with his former adviser — but then conceded that he thinks highly of Morris and still talks to him.

"I wish I had been," Huckabee said in an interview on ABC's "This Week." "male private part’s one of the smartest political minds, as you well know, in the business. I’ve known male private part for, gosh, almost, I guess, 18, 17 years. He was a political consultant for me in the early ’90s in the first races that I won.

"But male private part is not available for doing political consulting work. Frankly, I wish he was, because he’s a brilliant political mind, and I still consider him a friend. I run into him from time to time, or I may talk to him. But I probably talk to 30, 40 journalists a week. Most of them I talk to more than I talk to male private part Morris, and I haven’t talked to him in a while."

Yeah, Gtown is weird as hell. I had a LSAT closer to your worst case scenario and got dinged there, but ended up with acceptances everywhere else (H, S, Chicago, UVa, etc). I have no idea what they're looking for. Screw 'em anyway. I'm happy at H.

Also, I had a good friend who got the full-ride at GWU. She had an LSAT near your worst-case scenario (lower, in fact). Then again, she had a 3.9 or something and was an amazing writer (essays, etc). Latina from the Bronx. Don't know much else about the scholarships, though.

Always something crazy -- so tell me why my client (clinical trial) has a roommate who recently moved up from Texas. I stop by the apartment to survey the conditions of disrepair a few days before the trial. The roommate thinks I'm cute and ends up needing to call me the next day to tell me my client is running late for a meeting. Now the roommate calls me regularly like we're buddy-buddy, of course just to "ask about the case." Of course, I explain that I can't discuss it with her, make short conversation, and try to get off the phone as quickly as possible. Then today she goes, "you comin' by the apartment today?" I reply that I'm done with my apartment visits and that I have all the pictures I need. She goes, "well how about when the trial is over and you no longer represent so-and-so?"

Problem is, lol, she's actually damn cute.

Of course, I'm not stupid enough to pursue anything -- even when I'm done with my clinical. But damn homey. Why couldn't I have met you on the street or suttin! lol.

How about just following my property teacher and saying riffraff. The other day when we were talking about zoning and how towns put in certain restrictions like minimum house size to keep the town rich, he says "But every town needs some riffraff, at the very least to mow the lawns"!

So Dems strip Michigan of its delegates. And Dem candidates aren't campaigning there or Florida. Opening for GOP to capitalize and take those states in the general election?

Good question, but I doubt it. The general electorate is not going to be too worried about the primary snub and is unlikely to hold it against the candidates. By November, the battle will just look like the the Democratic candidate [Clinton?] versus the Republican candidate [er, I'm sorry, I can't figure out which one of those losers is going to pull it off].

Giuliani or Romney. Thompson is probably the ideal candidate on the issues, but just looks bored and boring as *&^%. Huckabee has no money/organization. Paul is psycho, killer, Norman Bates.

So Dems strip Michigan of its delegates. And Dem candidates aren't campaigning there or Florida. Opening for GOP to capitalize and take those states in the general election?

Good question, but I doubt it. The general electorate is not going to be too worried about the primary snub and is unlikely to hold it against the candidates. By November, the battle will just look like the the Democratic candidate [Clinton?] versus the Republican candidate [er, I'm sorry, I can't figure out which one of those losers is going to pull it off].

Giuliani or Romney. Thompson is probably the ideal candidate on the issues, but just looks bored and boring as *&^%. Huckabee has no money/organization. Paul is psycho, killer, Norman Bates.